Forbes – Daniel R. Porterfield
“America’s strength as a democracy and its competitiveness in a global knowledge economy demand that more students receive an outstanding college education. This is a crucial national goal. Most proposals to achieve it, however, emphasize scale rather than quality. Competency-based education. Streamlining degrees to get people into the workforce more quickly. Expanding online learning. These concepts all have their place, but they have drawbacks in common, too. All risk stripping away key assets for the education of emerging adults: personal interaction with professors, multidisciplinary approaches to problem-solving, exposure to the thinking process essential to scholarship, and the freedom to discover oneself in intellectual dialogue…This school year, I was inspired by many courses…ones that set goals and delivered outcomes critical to both individual and societal flourishing…Courses like these remind us of the distinct and enduring value of a liberal arts education. To paraphrase Robert Frost, great teachers become “awakeners”—not just asking students to answer questions, but also inspiring them to inquire, constantly, throughout their lives. Today, we see this process at work in every discipline, with classes that kindle fires in students’ minds for research, creativity, innovation, and social change. America has no future if we don’t educate our students for this kind of nation-strengthening work.”(more)